


Run boy run

by InkyElster (IdeenElster)



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Hopeful Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Indecision, M/M, On the Run, Post-Bad Ending, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 11:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15533232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdeenElster/pseuds/InkyElster
Summary: The deviant hunter catches up to them while they squad out in a house on their way to Canada.





	Run boy run

**Author's Note:**

> I gave myself a prompt cause this writer's block is still kicking my ass. Prompt: On the run + Connor/Markus/Simon

The deviant hunter catches up to them while they squad out in a house on their way to Canada.

Simon is pressed close to his side, still injured. It’s a nice house, as far as houses go and as far as Markus can judge, nothing around for miles and miles and therefore perfect for hiding out. He only knows Carl’s house in any case and _this_ one is nothing like it, more mundane and less eccentric. But this house is almost better, not home, but it seems to have belonged to android sympathizers before they left, when the humans fled across the border or to relatives half a country away. Their luck. It’s their luck, his and Simon’s. There are thirium bags and spare parts enough to repair them. Enough to get them going a little faster again.

But then there is the deviant hunter, Connor but not _his_ Connor who died defending them, in the living room with a gun trained on them, barrel swaying gently from Markus' head to Simon's and back again. The human hunters must be close, too. They're prey now, free to be hunted and killed. All of the androids are to be exterminated, deviants more so than those still locked into their programming. The knowledge sits like acid in Markus’ gut.

Only he and Simon managed to escape. Markus would have sacrificed himself, but Simon had dragged him away, out of the fray and into temporary safety.

_There had been no point in fighting anymore. They’d been overrun._

And now a gun was pointed at them again, by one of their own this time.

"I'm supposed to bring you in alive," this Connor says, a mocking lilt to his voice. One gun, two androids. He won't take them both. One of them will die and Markus knows it’ll will be Simon. Of them both he’s the one deemed expendable by CyberLife. PL600 units are common enough while Markus is the only RK200 in the world. Rage churns in the lower parts of his torso. To him, Simon is irreplaceable. His companion, his friend, his lover, _his_ and he won’t give him up without a fight.

Markus moves before this RK800 unit is done speaking, shoving Simon away from him. The gunshot rings in his ears, but it misses them both, which he’s calculated. Just like Connor going down, Markus' hand around his throat. His skin slides back and then--

It's an instinct, programmed into his very _being_. Markus has no idea how it works exactly and maybe one day he’ll have the time to figure it all out, but he can see the coding in others, see the strings of zeros and ones and the piece shackling them to the humans. It's so easy to break that chain. He's never met an android who didn't want to be free, deep down inside.

Connor fights him. There are multiple chains shackling _him_ to CyberLife but Markus tears through them all. One by one, while Connor jerks in his grip. There is a scratch on his face, on his collarbone, sluggishly bleeding thirium when he comes back to himself. The RK800 unit, Connor but not _his_ Connor, not the one who willingly became deviant, lies silently underneath him, staring at the ceiling, stunned.

Markus has never forced it like this. He feels sick, stumbles back a step and into Simon who catches him. If he’d been human he would have retched.

"He would have killed us both, Markus. _Markus!_ " The urgency in Simon’s voice breaks him out of his shock. His eyes are wide and Markus presses their foreheads together, tries to calm them both.

"The humans can't be far. We have to move," Markus snaps out and they move to Connor's side as one, pulling him to his feet. He still looks dazed, not quite with them and it scares Markus. Something's not right but there is no time to waste with questions. He’s deviant now and that means he’s one of them, no matter the past. They can’t just leave him behind. He’s as good as dead if they do.

It's Simon who cups Connor's face, one of their own now, and puts the blade of a knife to his temple to rip away the LED; smoothes a thumb gently over the spot when the skin slides over plastic again. Connor says no word, eyes fluttering and Markus has never seen an android do that unless they were checking their system status.

They undress him together, ignoring the nudity and intimacy in favor of helping him into new clothes. Markus ignores the strange desire to linger, now is not the time. Then he catches Simon’s eye over Connor’s bare shoulder, hesitates for just a moment as he sees the interest reflected back at him. 

Not now. Later they can figure out what it means to have Connor with them.

They leave Connor seated on the couch while they pack their backpacks to the brim with spare parts and thirium bags, as much as they can carry without the fabric tearing and when they turn back around a gun is pointed at their heads. _Again._

Simon freezes. Markus does the same. Something is wrong. Oh so very wrong. Connor's face is pinched, barrel trembling in indecision. His whole body is shaking as if he's fighting himself. And just as suddenly it's over. The expression chasing away the blank look on his face is one of anger and something else.

For the first time he looks at them. Really looks at them. 

Markus sways closer without conscious thought, Simon at his heels, secure at his back.

"I-" Connor stops, shakes his head.

"What's wrong?" Simon's voice, oh so gentle. He reaches out when Markus doesn’t dare to, laying his hand on Connor’s shoulder. Markus isn’t sure Connor is aware how he leans into the touch.

"CyberLife hacked me." It's said dully, disbelieving. _Betrayed_. 

“Are they still…” Markus trails off, but the unspoken words are clear enough. _Can they still hack you?_

Steel replaces the confusion is in Connor’s eyes. "Not anymore. They don't have any hold of me anymore." There is relief, too, among the loss.

"Good." Markus can't keep the satisfaction out of his voice. Connor belongs to them, as long as he wants to.

"We can't cross the border. There are too many patrols," Connor warns them, unnecessarily so. Half the river is frozen over and the rest is full of border control.

"We know. They won't be patrolling forever," Markus answers. But they still can’t stay here, can’t stay in any place for too long. 

Connor nods and takes the bag Simon hands him, fingers brushing and there is a new expression on his face, one Markus doesn’t dare recognize, not yet.

They pack, leave the house before the hunters can be upon them. A car brings them a few hundred miles away to another abandoned shack in the woods. They hide, move when necessary and hunker down when it’s too cold, when the wind is howling and the temperatures threaten to damage their bio-components.

They survive, curling around each other in the day while the humans search for them. 

They wait for spring. They’ll be able to cross the river then, unseen.

**Author's Note:**

> I was and still am ridiculously unsure about posting this. :/


End file.
